Based on the film ‘L’Emploi Du Temps’ by Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo, the pic follows Vincent (Sandler), who after being fired from his job can’t bring himself to tell his wife and family.
Rather than reveal the truth, he spins a web of lies to conceal his situation. He escalates his lies further when he creates an investment scheme and asks friends to contribute, and the deception threatens to overwhelm his life and his family.
‘Time Out’: the director talks
Here’s Cooper on why he decided to tackle the remake:
“I first encountered Laurent Cantet’s film in 2001, and it’s lived with me ever since. I’ve been thinking about revisiting it for years, but now felt like the right moment — we’re living in a time where questions of identity, work, and self-worth have become impossible to ignore.”
Scott Cooper attends the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
(L to R) Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Allen White, and Bruce Springsteen attend the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere‘ tells the story of famous musician Bruce Springsteen during the time in his life when he was writing the album Nebraska, and struggling to deal with trauma from his past.
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Moviefone attended an in-person press conference in support of the film, which featured stars Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Odessa Young, musician Bruce Springsteen, and writer/director Scott Cooper. The group shared behind-the-scenes details about the filming of the movie and why now is the right time to tell this story.
1) Bruce Springsteen Reveals Why Now Is The Right Time For ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’
Bruce Springsteen attends the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
Bruce Springsteen is one of the most beloved and well known musicians in the entire world, so of course he has been approached many times by filmmakers who wish to create a biopic telling his life story. During the press conference, Bruce Spingsteen explains why now is the right time, and why this movie is the right one.
Bruce Springsteen: I like the idea that it really is not quite a music biopic. It’s actually a character-driven drama with some music. So that appealed to me. And also, it’s only a small slice of a period of time in my life when I was 31 and 32 and I was going through some first of some difficult times. And Scott [Cooper] came down and I met Scott along with Warren Zanes, who was the writer of the book, Deliver Me From Nowhere. And we just sat around and talked for an afternoon. I got a feeling from Scott that he knew exactly the kind of picture that he wanted to make. It was very in line with the type of record that Nebraska was. It was a picture that was going to feel, a studio picture that felt like an independent picture. I knew from Scott’s films, which I’d seen, that he had a real talent for capturing blue-collar life, which I was, despite some of the success I’d had, I was still really living in New Jersey and in my community that I grew up in.
2) Jeremy Allen White & Jeremy Strong Were Thrilled To Get To Work With One Another
Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau have a very good friendship, and have for many years, that is built on trust and support. Jeremy Allen White, who plays Bruce Springsteen, and Jeremy Strong, who plays Jon Landau, were excited to get to work with one another in such close capacity for ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’.
Jeremy Allen White: I have been an admirer of Jeremy’s for a long time. I might have sent him a message through a mutual friend of ours at one point hoping we would do something together and then when I learned Jeremy was going to do this, I was very excited. But we hadn’t spent time together before we got together to shoot one of the scenes, which was at the diner. Everything fell into place. I trusted Jeremy. I trusted that he had and understanding of the relationship and I trusted that his understanding would be similar to my own because of Scott’s words and also because of the men we have been able to look to and because of the relationship that they have had for so long.
(L to R) Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong attend the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
Jeremy Strong: I agree. There as an ease to it. I’ve admired the hell out of Jeremy and I think he’s a fearless actor. A bone marrow honest actor. There is a natural affinity between us. I had a sense that he might work in a similar way, approach it in a similar way. I knew he would be committed.
3) Bruce Springsteen Explains Odessa Young’s Character & What She Means To Him
Odessa Young’s character in the film, Faye, is not an actual person from Bruce Springsteen’s life, but rather a combination of several people that impacted his life during this time.
Bruce Springsteen: I was a guy at the time who, I knew what I was doing for three hours every night. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing the other 21. Odessa’s Faye in the film, she symbolizes the potential and the possibilities of those other 21 hours that I was incapable of taking advantage of at the time. But she holds down a very, very important part of the film as she is the symbol of a real life and another life that was waiting for me out there that I wasn’t able to find until much later in my life. And she did such a wonderful job of it. So I thank you.
4) Jeremy Allen White Had Bruce Springsteen Record Himself Reading Scenes From The Script To Help Him Craft The Character
(L to R) Jeremy Allen White and Bruce Springsteen attend the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
In order to help better understand Bruce Springsteen, and the mental state that he was in during this time in his life, Jeremy Allen White asked him to record himself reading a few different scenes from the script.
Jeremy Allen White: I’d been listening to his voice. There were a couple interviews from 1980 I had been listening to a lot and his voice is a little bit different. But I really wanted to hear his accent. So, Bruce recorded himself reading a couple of scenes from the movie. I would listen every morning to Bruce’s reading from a couple of these different scenes. Each of the different characters was one with Adele Springsteen, [played by] Gaby Hoffman, and there was one with Jon. I wanted to hear if there was any change in voice with each of the different characters. That was so nice.
5) Jeremy Allen White Was Thankful Bruce Springsteen Was So Generous With His Time
Jeremy Allen White wanted to be able to do this difficult time in Bruce Springsteen’s life justice, so he was thrilled to be able to work closely with him and have him available if he had questions.
Jeremy Allen White: We spent a little bit of time together prior to filming. But because we didn’t know how much Bruce and Jon were going to be around prior to filming, that was the time we had. And then in that first week, I was really excited to have Bruce around, but also, of course, a little bit intimidated. I think what came with it was, I was very head down and I think fragile, trying to just do justice to the story and to Bruce. Bruce being there, for me, there was a lot of permission there. It felt good that he was there as a guide. The whole time I was making this movie, I was really pushing and searching. And it was so wonderful to have Bruce’s support and voice behind me.
Bruce Springsteen attends the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
Bruce Springsteen: The truth is, Jeremy’s been very modest about his preparation because he came in fully prepared, maybe asked me one or two questions.I had no idea what his preparation had been. He just, day one came, he went on the set and started his performance. And I just watched in amazement.
What is the plot of ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’?
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past as he makes a raw, haunted acoustic album titled ‘Nebraska.’
Who is in the cast of ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’?
(L to R) Scott Stuber, Scott Cooper, Odessa Young, Jeremy Allen White, Bruce Springsteen, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham, Jon Landau, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson attend the UK Premiere of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London on October 15th, 2025. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
There are so many biopics – musical and otherwise –flying around these days that it’s hard for any single one to stand out from the pack. Scott Cooper’s ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ – about the making of the Boss’ immersive, bleak 1982 lo-fi masterpiece ‘Nebraska’ – manages to make its mark for about half its two-hour running time.
The part that chronicles Bruce Springsteen’s creative process, as well as the struggle for his manager, his engineers, his label, and finally a depressed Bruce himself to understand what he’s doing, is fascinating and even powerful. The other half of the film – about a pointless romance with a single mom and the now-overdone cliches about the protagonist coming to terms with an abusive, non-loving father – are painful to slog through, especially since they try and fail to tie themselves to the more successful narrative about the album.
The movie opens in black and white, at Bruce’s childhood home in Freehold, New Jersey in 1957, where we learn in quick succession that his mom and dad fight (which, it’s implied, gets physical), that his dad is a drunk, and that these flashbacks are reappear like commercial breaks. It’s a smash cut from there to the stage of Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum in 1981, where the now-adult Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) finishes off his latest massive tour. Afterward, manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) tells Bruce – and us, in the first of many heavy-handed lumps of expository dialogue that Scott Cooper dumps in Strong’s lap – that they should start thinking about what’s next.
And Bruce does just that, moving into a secluded house deep in the woods of Colt’s Neck, New Jersey to begin working on new songs. His influences go far and wide – everything from movies like ‘Badlands’ and ‘The Night of the Hunter’ to the stories of Flannery O’Connor to his real-life glimpses of exhausted, dead-eyed working people sitting in diners (Cooper does capture the worn-down milieu of South Jersey in the ‘80s quite well) – and soon coalesce into a collection of haunting, sparse folk songs about the dark underside of American life that eventually becomes ‘Nebraska.’
That story, as well as the tricky gauntlet that Bruce runs to ultimately convince his manager and his inner circle that he wants to release the songs – recorded on a four-track machine in his bedroom – as is, without the involvement of the E Street Band and without releasing any singles, is the most interesting and lively part of a generally somber movie. But a lot of time is spent on the unresolved, cliched father-son conflict that Cooper tries to staple to the content of ‘Nebraska’ (which stands up quite well without it) and which we’ve seen so many times before that it’s now entered eye-rolling territory (which is not to make light of abusive fathers with substance abuse problems; it’s just that the movie doesn’t do anything new with it).
Also wasting our time is the romance with a local Asbury Park waitress (Odessa Young), who tells us – in another example of bad, trite writing – that she knows what she’s getting into with a sulky rock star who tends to disappear for weeks on end and then undermines that by behaving like it’s not what she expected. It’s a thankless character and storyline made even more insulting by the fact that it was made up for the movie, because somebody felt that Springsteen needed a love story.
The creative and business aspects of the film – Bruce writing the songs (a groanworthy moment or two aside, like when he writes ‘Mansion on the Hill’ after flashing back to his dad taking him to see…guess what), Landau reacting to the songs, Landau politely telling the head of the record label to get stuffed if he has a problem with what Bruce is serving up, and the struggle to master the record so that it sounds exactly as the Boss wants it – are quietly terrific. The rest, including a 10-minute tacked-on coda after the real ending that delves into therapy and borders on ridiculous, is not really worthy of this artist or the masterful album around which the film is constructed.
He doesn’t really look like the Boss, but Jeremy Allen White does capture something of his essence – and when the light or camera captures him a certain way, he almost resembles the man himself. But if he’s a little too broody on occasion, White’s rasp/whisper and body language still tell a lot about the inner turmoil and depression that both hinder and drive the artist. It’s an understated, nuanced performance that avoids the showiness of so many biopic marquee roles.
Equally effective is Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau. Although he’s cursed with some of the movie’s clunkiest dialogue, Strong channels the restrained resolve of one of rock’s most famous managers – gently pushing his client toward what needs to be done to continue their success, but knowing when to pull back and never showing anything but devotion to his client’s needs to the outside world. His warmth and love for Springsteen shine through as well, making their relationship one of the movie’s pillars. It’s also a nice change of pace for Strong after playing the vile Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice.’
The rest of the cast don’t have much to work with but do as well as they can. Odessa Young is very good but her character amounts to little as the woman who must be sacrificed at the altar of art, while Stephen Graham grunts and trudges his way through an essentially one-note character. The best of the supporting cast is Paul Walter Hauser as Bruce’s engineer, Mike Batlan, bringing some much-needed levity to a somber piece.
It’s interesting to compare ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ to last year’s brilliant Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown.’ The latter captures Dylan as the symbolic leader of a sea change in culture and music, while remaining an enigma. The former tries to paint Springsteen as a mystery too, but with the focus on him and not the way he changes the world around him, its impact is not nearly as powerful – especially when Scott Cooper brings more shopworn plot devices into the narrative.
Cringy dialogue like Bruce saying ‘That makes one of us,’ when a car salesman whispers conspiratorially, ‘I know who you are’ only steers this portrait of the Boss dangerously close to self-serving, performative mopiness, although White thankfully pulls it back with the sincerity of his work. If only more of ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ were as sincere.
‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ receives a score of 60 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’?
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past as he makes a raw, haunted acoustic album titled ‘Nebraska.’
Who is in the cast of ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’?
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere.’ Photo: 20th Century Studios.
Preview:
The first look at Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen is online.
He’ll star in ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere,’ directed by Scott Cooper.
Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser and Stephen Graham co-star.
The musical biopics continue to arrive, and many of them are choosing to go the segment-of-life route (see: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’) as opposed to the cradle-to-grave approach.
With the cameras now rolling, we have our first look at ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere,’ which will detail the recording of one particular album in iconic rocker Bruce Springsteen’s back catalogue.
Starring as Springsteen is Jeremy Allen White, who knows a little something about playing people who are dedicated to the act of creation after playing the driven Carmy in ‘The Bear,’ even if here, he’s swapping cooking for music.
Here’s what Cooper had to say about working on the new movie:
“Beginning production on this film is an incredibly humbling and thrilling journey. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ has profoundly shaped my artistic vision. The album’s raw, unvarnished portrayal of life’s trials and resilience resonates deeply with me. Our film aims to capture that same spirit, bringing Warren Zanes’ compelling narrative of Bruce’s life to the screen with authenticity and hope, honoring Bruce’s legacy in a transformative cinematic experience.”
What’s the story of ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’?
Bruce Springsteen in ‘Springsteen On Broadway’. Photo: Netflix.
The new movie will follow Springsteen as he struggles to make 1982 album “Nebraska.” The development of the record, which followed Springsteen’s 1981 “The River Tour,” marked a pivotal time in his life, one that he would only openly talk about decades after its release.
It’s regarded as a landmark in his musical odyssey and a source of inspiration for a generation of artists and musicians. Recorded on a 4-track recorder in Springsteen’s New Jersey bedroom and without The E Street Band, “Nebraska” is considered one of Springsteen’s most enduring works — a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching for a reason to believe.
When will ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’ be in theaters?
While it doesn’t have a specific date on the books, 20th Century Studios is looking to have this one on screens in 2025. If it turns out well, we’d guess it’ll be looking to debut during awards season.
Bruce Springsteen in ‘Springsteen On Broadway’. Photo: Netflix.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’:
‘Antlers’ tells the story of Julia (Keri Russell), a small-town teacher who becomes worried that one of her students, Lucas, is a victim of abuse at home. Written and directed by Scott Cooper and produced by Guillermo del Toro, it may not be surprising to find out that Julia’s story takes a very creepy turn. Russell and Cooper recently spoke to Moviefone about their new horror movie.
Moviefone: Keri, could you describe your character, Julia, and what attracted you to playing her?
Keri Russell: Well, I love Scott’s movies. I loved ‘Crazy Heart‘ and I wanted to work with him, and I thought the idea of his version of a horror film, especially in connection with Guillermo, was like ideal. And I play Julia, a school teacher who gets sort of obsessed with one of her students who’s harboring some secrets, and she tries in some way to help and save him and then in turn saves herself, or was trying to save herself.
MF: In a way, this could be a companion piece to ‘Out of the Furnace‘ in regard to how the location feeds the story. But I have to ask, what was it like collaborating with Guillermo del Toro on this?
Director/Writer Scott Cooper and Producer Guillermo del Toro on the set of ‘Antlers’
Scott Cooper: Well, it’s funny that you mentioned Guillermo because Guillermo del Toro said to me, he said, “Scott, this could play on a double bill with ‘Out of the Furnace, ‘which might be tough in one evening.” But Guillermo approached me about writing and directing this. He said, “Scott, your last three films have been horror films and nobody knows it. Would you consider directing a horror movie?” And I said yes, because some of my earliest remembrances and fondest remembrances of film were in horror movies with my older brother, who was taking me at too young of an age to see things I shouldn’t see. So it really felt like an opportunity to continue my exploration in going from different genres and never making the same film twice.
MF: I have to ask you both about Jeremy T. Thomas, because he’s amazing in this. He’s got such a gravitas. What was it like working with him?
Russell: He’s such a unique person. Visually, he’s so unique. Everything about him is so unlike kids his age. Just the energy of him is so just unique to him, and I mean his faith. He just wears that idea of, I don’t know, having known too much too soon, and I thought he was wonderful. And he is the movie. He’s so excellent in it.
(L to R) Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas and Keri Russell in ‘Antlers’
Cooper: Yeah. I couldn’t think about making the film now without Jeremy. I searched really kind of the world over, the English-speaking world, and I think we auditioned about 900 young kids.
And he had that quality that I was looking for, that you don’t quite know what it is until you see it. And you know that he isn’t a trained actor, you know that he doesn’t come camera ready, he can’t cry on cue, but one of the qualities that he has that’s, I think, a hallmark of great screen acting, is the same thing that Keri has, or Jesse Plemons, or other actors that I’ve worked with. He’s a great listener, and he is a very rich, emotional, inner life. And it allows the audience to place so much on him without really having to say anything. I try to whittle my dialogue to the core so that it’s more about behavior and inner life, as opposed to my writing as a screenwriter. Jeremy does that beautifully, and he’s just such a wonderful young boy, and I’m so happy for him, and I hope this just leads to other work for him.
‘Antlers’ is now in theaters.
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The first teaser trailer for “Antlers” is here to give you spine-tingling chills.
The horror film from director Scott Cooper and producer Guillermo del Toro features a young boy (Jeremy T. Thomas) reading a story he wrote that is creepy as hell. His teacher (Keri Russell) grows disturbed as he talks about a bear’s insides turning black.
She and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, soon discover that the student is harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.
The teaser isn’t long, but it is moody and atmospheric. The genre is certainly a departure for Cooper, whose previous films include “Crazy Heart,” “Black Mass,” and “Hostiles.
He told Collider, “[Guillermo] said I’ve obviously never seen you direct a horror film, but there’s a lot of horrific moments in your movies, so I’m more interested in someone who doesn’t work in that genre to step into it. Which is I guess a bit like [William] Friedkin in a sense, having not directing in that genre before he took on ‘The Exorcist.’”
Ruthless gangster Whitey Bulger’s icy blue eyes aren’t the only things that are haunting about the notorious murderer—he’s got a stone cold presence too.
“You get to see this guy—he has this ice going,” Peter Sarsgaard tells Made in Hollywood of the gangster played by his costar Johnny Depp in “Black Mass.” “I really think it’s the only way he could’ve gotten away with doing it so long.”
Sarsgaard portrays Brian Halloran, who was murdered in 1982 by Bulger.
“People had to be afraid— even people who turned him in had to be afraid,” Sarsgaard adds. “Fear is the operating principle.”
In the biopic, Depp makes a transformative appearance as Bulger, a balding, mobster who is now incarcerated for life on charges connected to 19 murders, among other crimes.
Dakota Johnson was under a lot of pressure to nail a convincingly wicked kewl Boston accent.
To pull off Beantown’s authentic sound for her role as Whitey Bulger’s girlfriend in “Black Mass” – playing opposite Johnny Depp – the Austin, Texas native tells Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” Wednesday that it was a matter of life or death.
“If you mess it up, [Boston natives] might kill ya,” the “Fifty Shades of Grey” star jokingly admits.
Not keen on upsetting Bostonians, Johnson says she practiced with a dialect couch and mingled with the locals. “I have a thing with eavesdropping,” she tells Fallon. “If I was at a restaurant or places, I would just listen to the accent and practice.”
Naturally, the game-loving late-night host puts her ear and tongue to the test with a challenge on worldwide accents, from French to Australian – and she hits the accents out of the pawk.
In the biopic, hunky Depp makes a transformative appearance as Whitey Bulger, a balding, blue-eyed mobster turned FBI informant. Presently Bulger is now incarcerated for life on charges connected to 19 murders, among other crimes.
“It’s about Whitey Bulger,” she explains, “who made an alliance with the FBI to bring down the Italians in Boston and also he did a lot of terrible things.”
